Too Late
by Namimakura
Summary: Sometimes, no matter how hard Naruto tries, there is no happy ending. And he may have to give up on all he’s ever wanted; his family back.


_AN: Hey, yeah, look, i posted something else! lol. and oooo, my first ever naruto fic!! dances around in joy The idea for this fic actually bunnied me ages ago…. When I was listening to the song apologize by one republic. Iffen you go look up the lyrics for this song, you'll kinda notice how I slip in refs as I go, lol. Also, I realized as I wrote this, that it pretty much follows any pairing you prefer. Be it naru/sasu, saku/sasu, naru/saku or naru/saku/sasu. (giggles). Anyway, this is HUGELY spoilerific for manga up to 405ish, so be warned for that, and it's rather depressing too…. Also, it's what I think _could_ happen in the manga in the future… though I suppose it'd be awful, lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and reviews would make me super super happy! (grins)._

xXx

Sasuke sat, simply staring at the stone cold floor.

He was pondering his decision for what seemed the millionth time.

He shook his head, attempting to clear the doubt from his mind.

The rage stirred inside him again, a bitter hate that throttled his breath, choking him. He had never hated until that day. He had never thought he could hate more than he had detested his own brother. But this, this was a gargantuan force that towered over his puny body and he was utterly helpless to resist it.

_Konoha_.

The word bled, hissing into his mind with a venomous poison.

How _dare _they?

Force his brother to destroy his own people? Slaughter the entire Uchiha clan? It was his family! First subjugation, then separation from the village and followed with a healthy dose of imminent destruction.

He could still his parents' bloody bodies heaped, one on top of the other. He would not allow such a crime to stand. He had killed his brother, only to discover that the true purveyors had yet to be punished. His family had yet to be avenged. The destruction of all he had ever known was still not finished.

Did they think that accepting the final heir with open arms would garner forgiveness? Did they dare imagine that when he had condemned _his own brother_, he would ever forgive their crimes? If they had, then they were fools.

After all, he had told them from the very beginning that he was born to be an Avenger. He would destroy all who stood in the way of his chosen path. It was far too late for any apology, any measly reparation that they might invent.

Nothing could make up for what they'd done.

And yet, for all those years, he had loved the village. It was the Leaf, and it was his home. When he had nowhere to turn, they had accepted him willingly into their ranks. He had a new brother, companions and those that admired him. Over and over, he told himself how little they mattered. How meaningless life was without his clan. But still, could he turn on them? Surely, the decisions of a few did not condemn the whole, did not doom those he _had _loved?

Could he live with himself if he destroyed his second family?

_Is this how his brother had felt?_

But still, it _did not _compare.

Not to the crimson rivers that flooded his vision, tangling with damaged limbs and bleeding internal organs. He saw his brother's tears saying that final goodbye, but it did not change the sight of his parents' bodies. It did not change his aunt's, hanging over her front porch, body still warm, heart not quite finished beating.

Everywhere he turned the bodies swarmed, dead faces blocking his vision and voices hissing, ever whispering in his tortured ears. Always reminded, with every waking dream, that there was no Uchiha blood but his own.

He had loved them.

But it was not enough.

Too late.

Years and years of nightmares too late.

Years of burning hatred, so far entrenched, he believed it could never be fully separated from who he was.

He _was _his hatred.

And so he would destroy them.

Opening his eyes, he allowed the decision to settle firmly around him like a protective, insulating cloak.

"I'm afraid it's too late for the Village Hidden in the Leaf…" he murmured, eyes glowing red at last.

xXx

_No! NO! _her mind screamed. _Sasuke! Naruto!_

There was blood everywhere and Sakura _could not believe this was happening_. From the very depths of her being she wished for it to no longer be true. She willed it to come undone. All the broken pieces that had fused together in a haphazard fragment of twisted futures she wanted to reset. She wanted a second chance to change the past. Squeezing her eyes shut, she took a moment to hope desperately that her wish, _for once_, would be granted.

She opened her eyes and reality assaulted her once more, destroying the last fragile hope she possessed.

She had always hoped, always _believed_, that one day, she and Naruto would be able to bring Sasuke back. She had _known_, deep in her gut, that they would save him. He would come back to the Leaf and the three of them could be a team again. She was only just realizing now that such hopes were false. It must have been Naruto's innocence, his sheer _naïveté _that she had allowed to influence her, that tricked her into following along with something she wanted so dearly herself. She would not cry at the death of her childish dreams, and she knew that Naruto would never really accept what she was finally understanding.

Sasuke would never return to their side. He would never again be on their team, training together. He would not leap in at the last moment to save them. He wouldn't be there to antagonize Naruto or blatantly ignore her. She had accepted such truths long ago, when training under Tsunade-sama, but having reality slam into her body this way was unraveling her very core. Everything was striking far too close to home.

The day had finally come that Sasuke had gone too far.

She had thought, once upon a time, that she had loved him. His genius, his beauty, his dedication to fighting and the allure of mystery that shrouded his entire personality. He was dark and wonderful. But then he had left, turned on them and all they had was this _belief _that they could convince him to change his mind. This determination to never give up on their comrade, their _family_.

But had she ever really believed Sasuke would return?

Or was it that she could not bear to break Naruto's heart?

Because somehow, in the years separating her from Sasuke, she had forged a new goal. She did not want to win the Uchiha's heart, she wanted to protect a boy who had been hated for far too long. Naruto was too busy being strong, too busy protecting his slowly budding friendships and gaining strength to consider how he himself could break. Someone had to look out for him and Sakura had selected herself as the best candidate.

And somehow, through the years, that had become more important to her than, well, saving Sasuke. And right now, Sasuke was threatening that protection.

_Too far!_

She would not let him kill Naruto, nor would she let Sasuke break him. Crouching low to the ground, she fixed herself firmly in her position of protective defiance. She had dawdled through this fight long enough!

Sasuke should have known that her love couldn't last forever, no matter how she had idolized him. There was no redeeming him now, not now that he was so bent on crippling Naruto.

No, she knew better than that. His aim had always been to kill the blonde shinobi.

Fire engulfed Naruto once again as Sasuke flashed quickly behind him, raising Chidori in quicker time than she'd ever seen. It exploded into his back, launching Naruto forward and even with Sakura's expert speed, she only just caught his nearly prone body.

_I thought you were an angel…_

She allowed herself a brief moment of regret before her eyes flashed and she turned towards Sasuke, battle fury lighting her eyes at last.

She would protect Naruto and Konoha to the end if she had to.

xXx

Naruto had always considered himself a simple enough sort of ninja. All he really wanted was to be acknowledged and respected. To that end, he trained night and day, always struggling to attain greater strength, power and speed.

It was life that complicated everything.

It gave him to parents and stole those from him. It gave a teacher who cared for him (which he had appreciated). It gave him a brother who abandoned him and a crush who loved his lost brother. It gave him a cruel fate with the weight of a Kyuubi within his very body.

But Naruto was not the sort of ninja who gave in to such things. His greatest strength was his own will that taught him to never give up. After all, he had once been unloved, but his perseverance had earned him friends and loved ones. He had once been weak, but he was far stronger than many of his new comrades now.

And there was no fate he was willing to accept as set in stone. Nothing he would not do to change it.

But some things, once broken, cannot be fixed.

Some things _cannot _be mended.

He would have done anything, _anything_, his mind snarled at him, to save Sasuke. He would have crossed _any _bridge, surpassed _any _obstacle and risen over any difficulty.

Even now, with Sasuke fighting to destroy the entire village, he had been determined to see it through.

But now!

_No!_

Everything shattered. Broken fragments exploded around him echoes of emptiness.

Had he never realized? Had it really always been about Sasuke?

It didn't matter anymore. He could feel the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra rising through his whole body, moving to overwhelm his sense of self and he really couldn't bring himself to care.

For once, they were both of two minds.

He had never believed Sasuke could ever go too far. There was nothing that couldn't be forgiven once he convinced him to come back. That Sasuke would repent all those things and return.

But now, there _was _no going back.

He had never believed that there would be a point of no return.

The chakra around him was a threatening flood of awe-inspiring bloodlust, saturating the very air with its brilliant red hue. It screamed for recompense and horrifying devastation to be visited on the perpetrator of this vile crime. Naruto's eyes were lit with the Kyuubi's intensity as a visible tail emerged from the sea of angered chakra. Tail after tail swirled and spun, until Naruto was hardly visible underneath the Fox's aura, as well as the bundle he cradled so dearly.

Naruto would have said he needed Sasuke. Needed the brother that was his rival. The loner that understood him better than anyone. The strength that challenged his to be ever stronger.

But he didn't need only Sasuke. And the truth of that was ripping his insides to shreds. Always, he realized it too late. His mind never _had _been able to keep up with his heart.

All along, he'd wanted Sasuke back. He'd wanted to forgive him, to save him.

But now, with this body in his arms, he was forced to admit that Sasuke wasn't coming back and even if he was, there would be no open arms waiting.

_It was far too late for apologies._

The Fox in his mind agreed with him.

With Sakura's dead body cradled protectively in his arms, there was no forgiveness left in his heart.

Because, somewhere along the way, she'd become just as important as Sasuke. And he'd let her die in front of him, all for the sake of this silly dream of rescuing someone who didn't even want to be saved.

And even though he swore he would not cry, the infernal stray tear leaked down his cheek. A single drop fell from his cheek into the swirling abyss of chakra, and suddenly all of it was roaring, raging, rippling into a luminescent blue and it was Naruto standing there, not the Kyuubi.

He laid Sakura's body down more gently than he would have believed himself capable. Looking up, Naruto's eyes _glowed _at the last Uchiha heir.

"I'll kill you!"

_Too late._


End file.
